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Altar of the Cosmos
The Altar of the Cosmos, known in full as the High Sacrificial Altar of the Cosmos and the Rock of Gibraltar, is the final component of the Trial of the Cities. History Early History When the Super-Ancients began creating a series of trials for a later race of sentient people, they decided to set make a vital component of one of them their Three Cities, thus creating the Trial of the Cities. The final stage of the Trial was designed as a sacrificial ritual, and so an altar, known as the High Sacrificial Altar of the Cosmos, was established within the mountain of what would later become known to humanity as the Rock of Gibraltar. The Super-Ancients arranged it so that a sacrifice would need to be made at the correct time to finish the trial, which would be when the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A-star in the center of the Milky Way galaxy emitted radio waves that would bombard Earth. If the sacrificial ceremony took place on the Altar during this time, then the radio waves would pass through the sacrifice and travel at great speed towards the center of the universe on a path cleared by the Hydra galaxy. Eventually, the Super-Ancients would pass on some of their knowledge to the group of humans that would become known as the Four Legendary Kingdoms; among the things they shared was the location and purpose of the Altar. Meanwhile, as the Altar was within the Kingdom of Land's territory, only they maintained the Altar's location, and even then it was only for the King to know of once they ascended. The Four Kingdoms spent years cultivating a relationship with the Oracles of Siwa, whom they believed to be the Supreme Initiate of the Super-Ancients' knowledge, ensuring that their bloodline went on in preparation for the sacrifice on the Altar when the trial began. However, only the Kings of the Four Kingdoms and a few of their closest advisers were aware of the purpose of the Kingdoms' relationship with the Oracle. On a rare few occasions over the millennia, an Oracle was selected to sacrifice themselves or their child at the Altar in anticipation of the looming trial. While most opted to choose to sacrifice themselves, the figure known as Abraham chose to sacrifice his son Isaac in the Altar's pool. The Kings of the Kingdom of Underworld came into possession of a tablet from the Altar which contained details of the Mysteries regarding the Secret Cities and Immortal Weapons. A charcoal rubbing of the tablet was made by the Order of the Omega faction of the Catholic Church, which they kept in their monastery within the Gallerie dell'Accademia. This rubbing would later become the way to view the entirety of the Thoth-written text on the tablet, as a portion of it broke. Over the years, tales emerged about the Altar of the Cosmos and the sacrificial ritual, and so the Mayans and Aztecs practised sacrificial ceremonies in honour of the Altar, which they called the Altar for the Rebirth of the Cosmos. On May 12, 1942, as British forces worked out around Gibraltar, one of their mining excavations into the Rock, known as the Arow Street tunnel, inadvertently breached the chamber of the Altar. The Chief Royal Engineer, Brigadier James Conn Jr, realised what they had stumbled upon and and had the men of the 178th tunneling company who had excavated into it executed to prevent them from spreading word of their discovery. The Brigadier wrote a King's Eyes Only report regarding the situation, changing the name of Arow to Arrow to throw off any who might intercept it and discover the Altar's location. Though the Altar of the Cosmos remained hidden from public view, the Rock of Gibraltar became a popular tourist attraction, and so the Kingdom of Land maintained their military presence around the Altar's entrance. Some time after his ascension to King of Underworld in the late 20th century, Anthony "Hades" DeSaxe was granted possession of the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos, which he proceeded to keep secure in his penthouse's vault at Saxony Tower. During the short time that her father was the King of Land, the Keeper of Royal Records, Iolanthe Compton-Jones, hoping to satisfy her curiosity about the Altar and believing it to be within Mount Blanc, requested permission to examine it. Her father refused, however, even though he was aware that Mount Blanc was not the location of the Altar of the Cosmos. Around this time, Iolanthe also discovered Brigadier Conn Jr's report on the Altar mixed in with other reports, having apparently never found its way to his King. From his mansion above the entrance to the city of Atlas, the Trismagi watchman Hardin "Sphinx" Lancaster was able to look out at the Rock of Gibraltar across the Strait of Gibraltar, and kept a scale model of it along with ones of the Three Cities. The Three Secret Cities A few days after the conclusion of the Third Trial, the mission to begin the Trial of the Cities began in earnest. As he had joined forces with Jack West Jr's team, Anthony urged them to join him in heading to his New York apartment to obtain both the tablet of the Altar of the Cosmos and the Helmet of Hades. Once Hades led them into his vault, Lily West, the present day Oracle of Siwa, translated the Word of Thoth on the Altar tablet, which noted the order the Cities had to be tackled and an ode about the Immortal Weapons. As Hades revealed the existence of the rubbing copy of the Altar tablet, the group was alerted to the arrival of King Orlando Compton-Jones, Cardinal Ricardo Mendoza and Sunil Malik and their men, who as Hades and the others hid in a panic room proceeded to take the tablet so that Mendoza's peers in the Vactican could examine it before the ceremony. After Hades was captured by his brother Yago, Jack determined that their best course of action would be to view the full rubbing to view the full text of the Altar tablet, and also set about trying to locate the Altar of the Cosmos itself. When Jack and Lily managed to view the tablet rubbing, they discovered that activating the defences at Thule would activate the defences of Ra and Atlas as well. As Orlando was unaware of this and in a hurry to complete the trial, Jack's team set about trying to locate all of the Cities so that they could help to ensure the Trial of the Cities wasn't failed. Later, as Alby Calvin was looking through Iolanthe's documents regarding the Altar of the Cosmos, he discovered the K.E.O. report, and saw through the error Brigadier Conn Jr had intentionally made, leading him to realise that the Rock of Gibraltar was the Altar, and soon shared this revelation with his comrades. While Lily was being held captive by Sphinx, who intended to use her as the sacrifice on the Altar, he revealed to her the Rock of Gibraltar's true nature as the Altar of the Cosmos. Once Jack's team managed to empower the Immortal Weapons with their blue gemstones at the Cities, Sphinx, Mendoza and Chloe Carnarvon took them and began making their way to the Altar of the Cosmos to complete the Trial, where Orlando and the other Kings waited to view the ceremony. Once the three arrived in the Altar's chamber with the Weapons and Lily, Sphinx initiated a coup by fatally stabbing Orlando while Mendoza executed the Kings of Sea and Sky and the Knights of the Golden Eight killed their guards. Setting the tablet in the sacrificial pool and closing Lily inside with the empowered Trident of the Sealords and Helmet of Hades, Sphinx proceeded to complete the Trial as the Sagittarius A-star's radio waves hit the Earth, stabbing Lily in the heart with the Sword of the Rock. With the Oracle's death in the Altar of the Cosmos's sacrificial pool, the Trial of the Cities was successfully completed. Before the group departed, someone tossed a pill of greystone powder into the pool, which solidified into stone and sealed the Weapons and Lily's body within the Altar. When Jack and Aloysius Knight arrived at the Altar's chamber a few hours later, Jack was distraught as he saw that he was too late to save Lily, and Knight took the heartbroken man away. A few days later, Alby, Stretch and Pooh Bear made their way to the Rock of Gibraltar in order to retrieve Lily's body from the Altar, but as he was clearing away the stone from around her face, Pooh Bear discovered something wondrous enough to make him happy. Features Altar Chamber . Star Shaft . Trivia . Category:Locations Category:The Three Secret Cities